Take Action: Get tobacco out of Formula One!

[Anna White]

Following is an urgent request from international public health
advocates and a news article explaining how Canada (and other countries)
are being blackmailed into promoting smoking via Formula One car races.
Please take several minutes to sign the petitions.

####

Dear tobacco control colleagues:

Tobacco control advocates around the world need to stand up to global
blackmail from Formula One and the tobacco industry! Please sign FOUR
Globalink petitions, one to Canada, congratulating the Prime Minister
for putting an end to tobacco advertising in Formula One racing, even
at the cost of losing Canada's Formula One race, and three more to each
of China, Bahrain and Turkey urging them to maintain their existing bans
on tobacco advertising and sponsorship and prevent tobacco advertising
from ever appearing on Formula One race cars in their countries.

Will the simple act of adding your name and address to petitions really
get tobacco advertising out of Formula One all around the world?  Maybe
not, but it will sure help a lot!

Please take two minutes to add your name to four Globalink petitions
(three if you have already signed the one to China) aimed at getting
tobacco out of Formula One around the world.  You can do so by going to
the following four web addresses:

Canada: http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=canada
Bahrain http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=bahrain
Turkey http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=turkey
China*: http://petition.globalink.org/view.php?code=shanghai

* Over two hundred tobacco control advocates have already signed this
petition to the Chinese Health Minister, Madam Wu Yi.  You need only
sign this one if you have not already done so.  It will be sent to Madam
Wu Yi very soon.

Thank you for your help!

Neil Collishaw, Research Director
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
ncollishaw@smoke-free.ca

####

Grand Prix strategy sputters in Ottawa

By Drew Fagan
Globe and Mail (Toronto, CA)
September 16, 2003

Bernie Ecclestone may have overplayed his hand. The Liberal government's
backbone stiffened yesterday in the battle over its controversial
antitobacco legislation, which will ban sponsorships at high-profile
events such as Montreal's Canadian Grand Prix and is to go into effect
on Oct. 1.

Government sources suggested yesterday the federal government is now
leaning toward allowing the legislation to go into effect unchanged,
even if this guarantees that the Formula One auto-racing circuit
bypasses Montreal in 2004 and thereafter. The reason: Many cabinet
ministers believe that Mr. Ecclestone, who runs the F1 operation almost
as a private fiefdom, isn't interested in any kind of compromise.

Indeed, some government officials wonder whether Mr. Ecclestone's real
concern is the tobacco legislation at all. Perhaps he just doesn't want
to stop in Montreal any more, they suggest, and is more interested in
seeking out new venues in Europe and Asia. If that's the case, what's
the point of even considering a compromise, such as a further delay of
legislation that already included a multiyear phase-in period when
passed in 1998?

Mr. Ecclestone has fuelled his hard-line reputation with suggestions
that a delay until 2005 of Canada's new law (coinciding with
implementation of a similar ban by the European Union) wouldn't be
sufficient. He wants a permanent exemption from Canada's legislation for
his auto race.

"That's simply not possible," Health Minister Anne McLellan responded
yesterday, after she hailed the new law as an example of Canadian
leadership in the fight against smoking. "We've been through this; we've
made this clear."

As recently as last weekend, pressure on Ottawa was growing quickly to
find just about any way to keep the annual auto race. Proposed solutions
have included a delay of the law or massive federal support for the race
to compensate organizers for the loss of tobacco sponsorship.

When antitobacco activists realized yesterday that Ottawa was seriously
reassessing the situation, they quickly rallied, calling cabinet members
and the media. Cynthia Callard, executive director of Physicians for a
Smoke-Free Canada, argues it would not be easy for Ottawa to delay the
sponsorship law again, since Canada signed an international convention
this year that includes a commitment not to permit the export of tobacco
advertising. F1 races, broadcast worldwide, would appear to violate
that.  "At some point, when you are dealing with a blackmailer, you have
to say no," added Francis Thompson of the  Non-Smokers Rights
Association.

Indeed, the word blackmail in relation to Mr. Ecclestone received wide
airing yesterday on Parliament Hill. Why, MPs wonder, has Mr. Ecclestone
been willing to compromise regarding antitobacco legislation in France
and England but not in Canada? He may miss Montreal more than he
realizes, they suggest, since the race has consistently been profitable
there over its  25-year history, drawing hordes of fans from North
America and Europe.

Federal officials emphasize that Ottawa is continuing to seek a
compromise, alongside members of the Liberal government in Quebec. A
senior federal minister from Quebec was expected to provide an update at
yesterday's cabinet meeting, but did not due to scheduling reasons. For
the moment, attention is focused on an ad hoc task force comprising
federal, provincial and private sector representatives, which is
continuing to seek a compromise acceptable to all sides, including Mr.
Ecclestone. One strategy has been to appeal to the race-car owners
themselves to try to find non-tobacco sponsors for the Montreal race.

"There is a small door open," said an aide to Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon.  But many wonder if it may be too little, too late, and that
the odds of the race being saved are growing longer. And they hope,
perhaps beyond hope, that Mr. Ecclestone may one day realize the error
of his ways and seek to return to Montreal.